While summer is not the only time of year for events benefiting charities, hardly a weekend passes during the season without a walk or run or a bike (pedal or motorized) ride. Even an occasional neighborhood lemonade stand appears. Whether it’s an event organized by hundreds and involving thousands or simply two or three enthusiastic children wanting to do their part on behalf of a noble cause, Hoosiers are a charitable and compassionate people who have responded generously over generations to worthy causes.
An early example of this generosity was a note from the Indianapolis Sun that I found connecting my family to the outpouring of Hoosier compassion for the families of the thirteen firefighters who were killed and nearly a score who were injured on St. Patrick’s Day 1890 when fire swept the Bowen-Merrill Co, a stationery and book store in downtown Indianapolis, and the wood roof and floors collapsed. Special funds were set up by various civic groups to help the families of the dead firefighters including one sponsored by The Sun for the seven children of “Tony” Voltz. People throughout central Indiana responded to the plea including the following letter received by the paper from Cambridge City:
…Dear Sir: Please find enclosed twenty cents (2017: $5.54) for the orphans (sic) fund. Brother and I worked for this our very own selves. We gathered old iron and bones and overshoes and sold them. We feel very sorry for the seven little orphans who have no papa today, with love to them and their mama, from
Clara and Ray Barnett
Fortunately, tragedies like the Bowen-Merrill fire are rare, but Hoosier kindness, goodness, and generosity is not. The Sun noted that children like 9-year old Clara and 8-year old Ray (who would eventually become my grandfather) would “grow up into the world with big hearts and willing hands to aid the afflicted and suffering.” And, so they did and they continue to do so.
The charity drives that are most common are annual appeals. Locally, an early example of an annual appeal was the Fresh Air Fund, a campaign conducted through the newspapers to raise monies that began in the late 1880s “to give tired mothers and little children a day in the woods.” Formalized in July 1890 as the Summer Mission to Sick Children, a camp was established on donated land at Fairview Park (present site of Butler University) with the object “to gather up the babies among the needy poor and take them out of the hot and crowded city” for a day. In addition to supporting the Fairview Summer Mission, the Indianapolis News Fresh Air Fund sent Indianapolis boys to camp at Winona Lake, Indiana for a week, followed by a week at camp for girls and their mothers.
At Bethany Park, southwest of Indianapolis near Brooklyn, Indiana, The News Fresh Air Camp provided a summer retreat for women and babies for several seasons before relocating to Cory’s Woods, west of Oaklandon along the banks of Indian Creek, in the summer of 1906. Children were asked to name the camp, and the following year “Cheeryvale” was chosen as the name for the News Fresh Air Camp. To help support Cheeryvale, the annual baseball game between the Pioneers and Veterans began in Irvington.
The first game of the series was played on the Butler College diamond on Saturday, August 3, 1907, before a throng in which “all the first families of Irvington were represented” in the bleachers. A parade from the post office at Ritter Ave. and Washington St. to the campus, with the Pioneers attired in blue overalls and the Veterans wearing gray jumpers, led by former town marshal Sam Smith, Hero of Chickamauga, in his army blue, preceded the “swatfest.” The players had “adhered to the training rules which prescribed strict abstinence from baseball or any other athletic sport” during the year preceding the game. There was a short delay in the start of play when the Pioneers protested the age of one of the Veteran players. However, the player “was able to prove that he would have been forty years old if he could have been,” and the umpire shouted, “Play Ball!” The Pioneers, captained by George W. Russell, won this first charity contest against the Veterans, captained by James L. Kingsbury, by a score of 29 to 19. The real winner, however, was the News Fresh Air Fund which received $75.78 (2017: $2,023) from ticket sales, peanuts, crackerjacks, and lemonade sales, and advertising space in the score card.
The 1908 rematch had the Pioneers crying “foul” as the Veterans won the benefit game 32 to 12. The Pioneers charged the Veterans “fixed the umpire, rung in ‘ringers,’ juggled the figures on the score sheet, moved first-base ten feet back when the Pioneers were at bat, tripped base runners, and caught flies in sacks attached to the front of their uniforms.” All in all, “it was the merriest afternoon Irvington has had in a long time,” and $160 (2017: $4,431) went to making the children of Cheeryvale happy. At the 1910 game, cartoonist Kin Hubbard created the score card, and in addition to refreshments, his Brown County characters Abe Martin and Tilford Moots’ Twins peddled post cards with “idealized portraits of the captains of the two teams.” The proceeds from this Pioneers and Veterans game was $500 (2017: $13,354), 29% of the total $1,710 (2017: $45,671) in donations received by the Fresh Air Fund. The Cheeryvale camp hosted 451 children, 110 women, and 33 aged women.
After six seasons, the Pioneers and Veterans suspended their charity contest in 1913 “owing to a variety of things which are keeping the promoters busy – intimate personal things like the arrival of grandchildren, weddings in the families and adjusting carburetors.” The two venerable teams would face each other once again in 1914 on the Irwin Field diamond and donate $350 (2017: $8,698) to Cheeryvale.
Time passed and this early example of a community coming together to support a worthy cause faded from memories. However, this is not an isolated example of Hoosier generosity. In later years neighborhoods around Indianapolis have held fetes, sporting events, and other activities bringing people together to help others. Recently the Broad Ripple Duck Race on the canal was held with proceeds going to support the programs and projects of the Broad Ripple Village Association, and in a few months Irvington will hold its annual Halloween Festival to support charitable works in the Classic Suburb. The Pioneers and Veterans would be proud.
